In existing document control systems, information related to a document, such as its properties and operational history, is managed to accompany the document data based on the document storing method or based on the document form. The related information may be managed according to the storing method such as, for example, by the storage location on a storage device and the file system, or the storage form on a client/server system. The related information may also be managed according to the document form such as, for example, by the document media type (such as paper or electronic) or document format (such as bitmap, PDF, or URL).
Documents in paper form may also be associated with a related document in electronic form. For example Japanese Publication No. 2002-542538 discloses scanning a paper document with a bar code or electronic watermark on the paper to produce electronic data, and scanning the code on the paper as well.
It would be useful to provide a document management system which organizes related documents having different forms and storing methods, and that manages and organizes the related information of these documents so that the information may be linked and readily analyzed.